Apple's iOS update gives hints on future of iPhone and iPad.

Imagination Technologies designs microchips
used in Apple's iPad

Apple has released a beta version of its iOS
operating system that shows some of the
features that will be coming for iPhone and iPad
users and hints at the form that future versions of
those devices might take.
The beta version of iOS 4.3 was released to
developers overnight to give them time to
prepare their apps for new features. As is typical
after these releases, the new features have been
posted online and beta users are already digging
around within the OS to find hints of future
changes.
New features in iOS 4.3 include increased AirPlay
support, allowing apps and websites to send
video from an iPhone or an iPad to an Apple TV,
and support for a ‘personal hotspot’, which will
allow an iPhone to create a wifi hotspot that other
devices can use. The new version also brings
more multitouch gestures - for example swiping
fingers up the screen will reveal the multitasking
menu.
Apple has also added an option that lets users
choose the function of the switch on the side of
the iPad. When the iPad was launched, the switch
served to lock the screen orientation of the iPad
but in iOS 4.2 Apple turned it into a mute switch -
matching the iPhone and iPod touch. The new
option allows users to choose what the switch
does.
A hunt through the code for the new version of
the iOS reveals clues about the future of iOS
devices. MacRumors has found a reference
to something called ‘Find My Friends’, leading
them to speculate that Apple plans a location-
based social service of some kind. 9 To 5 Mac
has found images that suggest the next version
of the iPad will have a camera - though perhaps
not a higher-resolution screen.
Meanwhile, Engadget has found references
to new model numbers for iOS devices -
including two new iPhones and three new iPads.
The second iPhone is likely to be a version based
on the CDMA mobile standard for the American
Verizon network. The three iPads are likely to be a
wifi model, a model on the GSM mobile standard
and a CDMA version.
Finally, Boy Genius Report says that future
versions of iPad and iPhone might do away with
the Home button and work entirely on touch
gestures. BGR ’s source says Apple is already
testing devices without the button. Whether the
concept makes it beyond the test stage is
something we ’ll find out soon, perhaps later this
year.

Source: Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8257082/Apples-iOS-update-gives-hints-on-future-of-iPhone-and-iPad.html